Children and schools

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In this IDS Working Paper, Robert Chambers (CLTS Knowledge Hub, IDS) and Gregor von Medeazza (UNICEF) argue for a more inclusive framework for thinking about and dealing with undernutrition. One concept is FTIs (faecally-transmitted infections). This is designed to avoid the reductionisms of faecal-oral infections, waterborne diseases, and the focus on the diarrhoeas to the neglect of less dramatic and less measurable FTIs especially environmental enteropathy. A second concept is the 5 As – availability and access which both have oral associations, and absorption, antibodies and allopath

The Guardian is currently running a series of articles abou the First Fight, the early stages of a child development and the many threats to normal healthy development posed by undernutrition and malnutrition, food security, inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.

The 6th Annual Virtual Conference on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in Schools, co-hosted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and UNICEF on the 17th October 2017, provides an opportunity to share the latest research and programming from around the world. The virtual conference is expected to bring together online over 1,000 participants.

For the first time ever, the virtual conference will be streaming live from the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina’s annual Water & Health Conference!

The study by Valerie Bauza and Jeremy S. Guest looked at the relationship between child faeces disposal and child growth in low- and middle-income countries. You can read a more detailed abstract here. It was published in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and International Health is available for purchase from the Wiley Online Library

Despite the importance of sanitation, few studies have assessed the effects of latrines on the health outcomes of children under 5 years of age. This study assessed the relations between latrine coverage and the prevalence of diarrhea in children under 4 years of age. It analyzed the baseline data obtained as part of a longitudinal survey targeting 720 households in Idiofa, Bandundu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Indiscriminate defecation among young children and the unsafe disposal of their feces increases fecal contamination in the household environment and the risk of diarrheal disease transmission. Improved sanitary technology for children too young to use a latrine may facilitate safe feces disposal and reduce fecal contamination in the household environment.

Around the world, girls and women miss classes, drop out of school and fail to reach their full potential because of a natural biological process: menstruation. Many girls grow up in communities where menstruation is shrouded in shame and stigma, misinformation is rampant and clean menstrual supplies are scarce.Over the past few years, a menstruation movement—spearheaded largely by female activists, many of them millennials—has swept the U.S., aiming to destigmatize periods and bring safer products to women and girls everywhere.

Kenya’s president has promised to give all school girls free sanitary napkins. Less than two months before Kenyans go to the polls, president Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Basic Education Amendment Act which compels the government to provide “free, sufficient and quality sanitary towels to every girl child registered and enrolled in a public basic education institution.”

Sanitation aims to sequester human feces and prevent exposure to fecal pathogens. More than 2.4 billion people worldwide lack access to improved sanitation facilities and almost one billion practice open defecation. This study by Freeman et al undertook systematic reviews and meta-analyses to compile the most recent evidence on the impact of sanitation on diarrhea, soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections, trachoma, schistosomiasis, and nutritional status assessed using anthropometry.

A lack of access to sanitation is an important risk factor child health, facilitating fecal-oral transmission of pathogens including soil-transmitted helminthes and various causes of diarrheal disease. This study by David A. Larsen, Thomas Grisham, Erik Slawsky and Lutchmie Narine conducted a meta-analysis of cross-sectional surveys to determine the impact that community-level sanitation access has on child health for children with and without household sanitation access.